MP Slavjanka Petrovska requests Assembly oversight hearing on data centres

MP Slavjanka Petrovska of SDSM has called on the Assembly to hold an oversight hearing about planned data centre projects after Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced talks with potential investors.

Petrovska said she does not oppose data centres themselves but is worried about secretive contracts and unclear answers from the Government. She posted on Facebook that data centres are part of the digital future and cyber security and could bring investment and opportunities for local engineers, but they must not be accepted blindly.

Questions for government and investors

In her request, Petrovska warned the projects involve large consumption of electricity and water, use of state land, tax incentives, infrastructure construction and long-term obligations for the state — elements that require parliamentary scrutiny.

She argued that where large sums, valuable resources and closed-door agreements meet, there is a serious risk of corruption, and proposed that the Assembly organise a supervisory debate on the announced data centres.

Petrovska listed the questions citizens expect answered: who the potential investors are and how they were selected; how much land, electricity and water the projects will use; at what price those resources will be provided and who will pay for necessary infrastructure; what tax and other incentives are being offered; how many permanent well-paid jobs will actually be created; and who will guarantee that costs will not fall on citizens while profits remain with private investors.

She also said experts and environmentalists should be heard at the hearing. "No reasonable person should be against data centres in advance. But every reasonable citizen should be against secret negotiations whose bill may be paid by that citizen in the end," Petrovska wrote on Facebook.

Photo: press material from the event